I know that Nicole from Tikkido definitely had a few chuckles when she read my post about my gingerbread house making fiasco. And after she stopped rolling on the floor, she sent me an email where she graciously offered to right all my wrongs with a gingerbread house tutorial to beat all gingerbread house tutorials.
She has baked and frosted more gingerbread houses than she can even count. Literally. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I got the definitive how to build a gingerbread house guide in my inbox! Enough that I’ve tried gingerbread house baking over and over again since meeting Nikki. Our houses have been amazing since we took using her methodology!
And with that, I’m turning this post over to the master gingerbread baker herself…going to add to her list of credentials here that she recently made an appearance on Food Network on Holiday Gingerbread Showdown. If that isn’t a mark of expertise, I don’t know what is!
How to Build a Perfect Gingerbread House and Gingerbread Recipe
Each year, sometime in early December, our family starts our annual tradition. It’s such an undertaking that we have a name for it: Operation Gingerbread. My family has been making real gingerbread houses since I was an infant, so for nearly 35 years now, and we’ve made literally thousands.
And when I say literally I actually mean literally, not figuratively like most people mean. Years of one for every kid in my class, my brother’s class, the girl scout troop, the boy scout troop, all our teachers, neighbors, and the work Christmas party really add up! We lost count somewhere after house number 3000.
After all these years, through much trial and error, we pretty much have this gingerbread thing down to a science. Paula did a brilliant job with her first house (I couldn’t believe it was her first!), and actually managed to figure out many of our tips and tricks in her first go. Very impressive! But I thought I’d share some of the other tricks we’ve learned through the years, to make her next attempt (and yours) even easier.
First, to get you started, here’s the recipe we like to use.
White House Gingerbread House Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 C granulated Sugar
- 1 C plus 2 T brown sugar
- 1 C Crisco solid shortening
- 3 T molasses
- 4 eggs
- 1 ½ t salt
- 2 t baking soda
- 6 C flour
- 1 T ginger
- 1 T cinnamon
Instructions
- Cream the shortening and sugar in a large stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fluffy. Add the molasses, salt, soda, ginger, and cinnamon. Mix completely. Add the flour, one cup at a time. The dough will become very stiff, and the bowl will be quite full. Once the flour is incorporated, turn the mixer off. It is a very stiff dough, and the object is to incorporate the flour, nothing more.
- Roll dough to a generous 1/8” thickness directly on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Trace around paper stencils (available for publication) to cut out the walls and roof of a gingerbread house. Lift away the excess dough on the cookie sheet with a spatula or knife. Be sure to leave some space between the pieces—the dough does expand while baking.
- Bake at 375 degrees for between 10 and 14 minutes. Slightly over-baked (short of burning) is better than slightly under-baked as you need rigidity for constructing gingerbread houses.
- Let the cookie pieces cool completely before assembly—even overnight. When cooling and storing, do not stack the pieces more than three high. If you do, the pressure will cause warm cookies to cement together.
But there’s more!
The recipe alone is not enough. You’re going to want to know what to DO with that recipe, right? You’re going to want to follow my top 10 tips to make every gingerbread house come out in a spectacular fashion.
You can find free templates for her a-frame gingerbread houses on Tikkido’s website.
Operation Gingerbread’s Top 10 Tips:
Tip 1: Buy the cheapest store brand of shortening you can find.
Something full of trans-fat goodness. I’m all for getting rid of trans-fats as a general principle, but when Crisco came out with their new formula, they almost ruined Christmas for us. You will get much better performance with the cheap stuff. It’s not like a huge house-shaped cookie is good for you, anyway. Just exercise moderation.
Tip 2: Don’t roll out the dough on the counter and transfer to a cookie sheet to bake.
Grease the cookie sheet and roll the dough directly on the pan. Trace around your templates and lift the excess away.
You might have noticed that I didn’t roll directly on the pan. That brings me to…
Tip 3: Especially if you are going to be making multiple houses, roll the dough out on parchment paper.
I raid my pastry-chef-mother’s stash of perfectly pre-cut sheets, and each year vow that I should pre-cut a massive stack of my own. They’re really handy.
But the parchment paper slips and slides all over the counter, you say! Fear not, read…
Thanks for letting me share the gingerbread joy! Combined with your excellent advice, I’ll bet a lot of people will be successfully baking their first gingerbread houses this year!
Thanks so much for sending along to CraftGossip! Great tutorial. I posted today at ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com (with a link to Nicole’s site too).
Wow- this is a great tutorial! Thanks so much for sharing it. My goodness, but Nicole sure does make a lot of little houses! And her tiaras are spectacular- definitely going to pop over and have a look at the thinkgs she makes. Vxx
Holy moly! This is a great tutorial, but I think I’ll stick with buying the box at the store that has everything already it it hahahaha. I don’t believe I have enough patience for this : )
Um rhinestone napkin rings, gorgeous! Have to hop over and see what other pretties she has.
Paula
This post was full of great ideas and had so many great tips that I had never even thought of! I shared you with my fb peeps and friends here:
http://www.facebook.com/LearningIsChildsPlay
If you would like to check it out!
Thanks SO much!
Laura
Whoa, this is great! it’s cold here right now, so maybe I could try a july gingerbread house, lol 🙂
Thanks for all of the great info. We’ve made quite a few over the years but it’s always just hit and miss with how we do it.
I love this idea!!! Thank you so much for sharing! I can’t wait to feature on my blog (http://moosenmelts.blogspot.com/) this coming week…and share my own pictures from trying this great idea. I hope this is okay and you take a moment to stop by and check out the other wonderful gingerbread ideas. Again, love the idea!! Candace
I lovethis idea to but can not figure it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Help mee
We’re following your tutorial and making this right now! We’re just getting ready to add frosting and decorate. The gingerbread is delicious, and strong! Thank you!!!
MOMtrepreneur Baker of the Day: Gingerbread House Tutorial
http://barbarasbeat.blogspot.com/2011/12/momtrepreneur-baker-of-day-gingerbread.html
Thanks for the hints. Do you care to share any of your pictures and decorating ideas. We too have a family tradition of making a gingerbread creation every year. But each year has to be better than the last and my kids have just about outdone my creativity. We have expanded past the traditional “candy” covered house. We have done a fort, santa’s village, and a realistic looking house. What to do this year?
Here’s a link to the gingerbread house I created for some inspiration:
https://frogprincepaperie.com/2010/11/gingerbread-house-lessons-learned.html
How many houses does this recipe make and can you post the dimensions of the pieces?
There’s not really a set dimension here–I just cut out some pieces that I knew would fit the cookie sheets I owned. A square and a triangle is all you need!
Not very helpful. Would be nice to know the dimensions that this recipe rolls out to, at the least….
Hi! I just wanted to thank you for sharing this. I stumbled upon it last year (through Pinterest) & decided to give it a go with my best friend. It was my very first try at Gingerbread Houses. We had 7 kids under 10 between us and it was a smashing success!! The recipes were spot on and the end results were picture perfect. We loved it so much that we’ve decided to make it a Christmas tradition…except THIS year we are inviting 3 more families to join us! I will also be doing these with my GS Troop as part of our Christmas party. Again, thank you for the expert advice & encouragement to try something I always thought too difficult. It has enriched my life and those of my children!
Thanks so much for your comment! Nikki really is amazing, and yes, this recipe/tutorial is totally spot on for someone to follow. We used it for a party of 10 last year all making houses and it worked wonderfully as well!
Hello,
Could you please tell me how much icing this makes?
Thank you,
Ashley
Hi there, I just made three little chalets today over in Britain for my kids and one of my daughter’s friends and it worked a treat! The kids loved decorating them and they tasted fabulous! Thanks for the info! jj in the UK
You are quite welcome! That sounds like wonderful fun. 🙂
Is there a template for the shape? or even the sizes of each piece? would love to make one. thanks
It’s a totally freehand thing we did here. I would measure what size walls, etc. will fit in your cookie sheet and go from there for dimension!
Thank you so much for this amazing post! It has been great for someone like me who is trying something like this for the first time! Parchment paper–GENIUS! I may never grease a cookie sheet again! I also am so grateful for the tip about cutting the excess cookie off shortly after pulling the pieces out of the oven–great tip!!! Thank you for helping my girls (4 and 8) have cute gingerbread houses to decorate this year!
Nicole really is brilliant! You should hop over to her site at Tikkido.com and see all the fabulous gingerbreadness she’s come up with this year. It’s incredible!
Ok so I only had two options for crisco (crisco and store brand/plain or butter flavor) and they both had 0 trans fats!! So my question is … What about rendered lard? Is that better (ie has more trans fats)?
Thanks for all the tips!
Nicole says, “I’ve had success with the cheap generic safeway/kroger brand shortening. I think they’ve improved the 0 trans fats formula since they originally created it.” Hope that helps!
Could you share the dimensions of your a-frame pattern? Would really appreciate it!
Thank you so much for the tips and tricks! I just showed my 5 yr old how I learned to be a gingerbread architect and we talked about how smart it is to read directions. Great pictures!
Does “T” stand for teaspoon or tablespoon?
That’s exactly right– big T=Tablespoon, little t=teaspoon
Hi 🙂 Thank you both for this amazing tutorial!!! Two questions:
1. What is cream of tartar? I live in Finland and have not heard we have something like that. What could I use instead?
2. Shortening. DO not have this one as well. Would butter work?
THank you! I am looking forward to trying this out with my 5 year old. She can not stop talking about making a gingerbread house! 🙂
Cream of Tarter. Well, I’ll tell you what it does first, as what it actually is another thing altogether. Cream of tarter helps with egg whites–makes them nice and stiff even if you don’t whip them entirely correctly. It’s sort of one of those things you could probably do without, but it does make your life much easier when you’re whipping eggs and baking. What is cream of tarter in the litteral sense? It’s the white cruddy stuff that results from fermenting wine. Really, I’d love to hear how they discovered its cooking properties!!
And on butter vs. shortening. No substituting there. Lard may work–I think that may be more widely available in Europe. But I’ve never given it a try that way!
I’ve had success with butter, too. In general, butter makes a crisper cookie, which lends itself to gingerbread houses well. You may have to play around with the proportions a bit, though. I don’t remember if I changed anything when I tried the recipe with butter years ago, sorry!
Thank you so much for this recipe and the great tips!! Made my first real gingerbread houses tonight using all of the above and am looking forward to decorating with kids tomorrow. This recipe made 6 small A Frame houses and you can find her templates here: http://tikkido.com/node/905
So glad you were successful!! 🙂 It’s really a super easy/quick way to make gingerbread houses, and those templates will really help out, too!
I tried to read all the comments for the answer to my question as was unable to find it. Approximately how many houses will the recipe make?
Should make 5-6 per batch. All really subjective as to how large you make them, thin you roll the dough, etc.
Thank you very much!
Just used both the recipes above for our gingerbread house, yummy recipe and great directions! My kids love it! Thank you, this website is amazing!
I just used this recipe and it tastes fantastic. I also love how hard the cookies are. I used the Wilton 3 piece cookie cutter set and 1 batch made 3.5 houses so 2 separate batches made me 7 houses. Thank you so much for the recipe. I’m pretty sure next year I’ll make the A frame houses.
The A-frames make it really easy to make houses–you’ll never do anything else after you make them this way!
Hello–thank you for the recipe, I am making a medieval castle amongst other things, for an event, and this recipe is amazing.
For those wondering roughly how ‘much’ the dough makes, I got (5) 7″ x 11″ sheets out of one batch.
hi
i loved your gingerbread recipe .I am just curious about how many gingerbread panel can make out of this recipe?
.Thanks in advance
I can’t wait to try this recipe out this year!! I will likely do a few A-frames and surround them with some ninja-bread men! My son will love it. 😀
It is the most perfect recipe/method ever. I wish you and your ninjas happy baking!
Hi : I’m very grateful to you for posting this clear tutorial – just what I was looking for! One question; you mention in the Tip #7 text, just before the royal icing recipe, that you always make royal icing with meringue powder and that it’s the easiest and best way to do it. But the recipe that immediately follows doesn’t have meringue powder in it. Is there a link to your preferred recipe containing meringue powder somewhere else or did I miss something? As a newbie to gingerbread house making, I definitely want to go with the best and most reliable method, so since you recommend meringue powder could you say how to use it? Thanks!!
Hi Cat! You can find Tikkido’s Royal Icing recipe here: http://tikkido.com/blog/royal-icing-googly-eyes-tutorial
Every year that I have attempted to make a gingerbread house from scratch has been a failure. Until.This.Year! Thank you for this incredible post! I did make three different recipes this time. And this one, is by far, the best. Not only by construct, but also by taste. I am getting requests to bake up another batch just to be eaten. Again, thank you for your post and your wonderful hints and tips. Merry Christmas!!
Thank you so much for the recipe and tutorial. I had bought the pre-made kits in boxes at the end of the season last year but they didn’t survive for use this year. I had always bought the kits because I was intimidated by gingerbread. When we found out we couldn’t use our pre-made sets, I even went out looking to find replacements with no luck. This was easy and delicious. We have three complete houses from the Wilton cookie cutter cut outs. Thank you!
Thank you for this tutorial! Came out great! Sharing your link and pictures of my house on my blog: sweetsomethingsblog.com
I made the dough per the recipe and it’s very crumbly and not holding together. When I try rolling it out it just falls apart. I made a second batch of dough in case I had missed something with the same result. Help!
I’m guessing it’s moisture content problem. If your flour is dry, if you don’t get all the molasses out of the spoon, if your eggs are smaller, all can affect moisture content. That’s why I start by adding five cups of flour and then work my way up to 6. You can fix it by adding a bit more crisco, another egg, or a bit of water at a time.
Love this recipe. Just attempted our families first homemade gingerbread houses. My 3 kiddos ?(6,and 11) love it and it is now a yearly tradition per them lol. Thanks so much!!!!!!
That’s so awesome! Love that it worked so well for you!
How many houses can you make out of this recipe?
Hey! Just wanted you to know I’ve been making this recipe for the last 7 years and it has always turned out perfect. I can consistently get 5 A frame houses plus extra trees, animals, etc out of one batch which is plenty for my family. I love your tip to use a silpat mat. I now use one 1’x3’ piece of cardboard (double thick) for a gingerbread village. Plus it’s easier to move when needed. And I’ve made cookie cutters for the A frame shapes. Streamlined the process so much! Thanks again! Happy gingerbread house making!
What a fabulous idea! I love how you’ve made it your own. Wishing you many more happy years of gingerbread baking. 🙂
I have used your tutorial for gingerbread for 3 years running now. It is the best one I’ve found yet! thanks so much for this info. It has made me very adventureous on designs. My family looks forward to designing and decorating every year now. My husband can’t wait for the leftover sticks!!!!
Thanks so much, Rebecca! We’re huge fans of Tikkido’s recipe, too!! We’re on year 8, and don’t see changing any time soon 🙂 It’s perfect!
Hi, Paula. Thanks for sharing your recipes and your tutorial. I was thinking of making this with my preschool class (16 children). I’ve just ordered cookie cutters to make the house. The Dimensions are 5.5″ tall for the front and back of the house, the side wall is 5.7″, and the roof and base floor is 6.69×3.93″ (not even sure if I would do the floor). Would I need to double or triple the recipe to make enough houses for my preschoolers? Thanks so much! Very excited for making these next week!
Sincerely,
– Sharlene
Hmmm…not really sure! I would not recommend doubling, as the bowl gets REALLY full with six cups of flour. I think I got 5 or 6 houses per batch with the small a-frame template tikkido provides (it is much easier to use!) Your dough usage will also differ based on how thin you roll the dough before baking.